No Rest for the Weary
by Rebecca Hb
Summary: Unicron is attacking Cybertron, and the female Autobots regroup and try to deal with this on the heels of the upheavals of Autobot City.


**No Rest for the Weary**

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"Status?"

Chromia looked over her shoulder as Elita One stepped onto the bridge of their small craft. There was a patch slapped over a gash in the pink car's side; smart of Firestar to conserve their resources rather than do a full repair job. Beta knew how long it would take the small Autobot flotilla to get someplace safe. If there was anyplace safe in a universe that had _That_ in it.

She gestured at the forward screens where the impossibly huge Transformer floated in space. "Big guy took a ship-type I've never seen before through the eye. After he smashed a good part of Cybertron, and I've got to tell you that I don't think the area he hit will be good for much anytime soon."

She didn't comment on how long it had taken Elita to work her way up to the bridge. She had been keeping an eye on the comm-log, after all; Elita had contacted all of the other Autobots from the Moonbase as soon as she could. Probably making sure everyone was on the same wavelength, calming their fears, and getting people organized for whatever would happen next.

"What's our course, Elita?" Chromia asked, hands settling on the navigation panel. "Earth?"

"No." Elita cupped her chin, staring thoughtfully at the viewscreens. "Not yet. We need to see how this turns out."

"All right," Chromia said quietly. "How many of ours got off the moonbase?"

"Less than I hoped."

Chromia waited for the addition of 'more than I feared', but Elita said nothing else. In a way, that said everything that needed to be said.

"We've still got no news from Earth," Chromia found herself saying. "Starscream was probably lying in his little announcement..."

Elita shook her head. "Until we do have news from Earth, I do not want to dwell on it. For now, we must face the situation as we know it."

Chromia nodded. She understood what her commander wasn't saying about the rumor of Optimus Prime's death. That it just might destroy her to lose her beloved after getting him back for such a short time. Chromia understood, because, if Starscream hadn't lied, she would need to stand firm to keep Elita from faltering. That prospect was all that kept her from throwing herself into combat with the mechanized monster attacking Cybertron.

Ironhide might be among the dead, too. _If_ Starscream hadn't lied.

If.

"The Dinobots are attacking," Elita observed.

"You expected otherwise?" Chromia grinned as she spun the dials on the viewscreen-controls, focusing on Grimlock as he landed on the gargantuan Transformer. "Whoo! Look at 'em go! They're doing a number on that bad boy!"

"Not enough of one. Bring the ship around-"

"Something just came flying out!" Chromia snapped, fingers flying over the viewscreen-controls. "Check the sensors, we might have to-"

"It's the Decepticon leader," Elita said flatly. "Let him drift."

Suddenly, great gouts of light exploded from the behemoth, and he **howled**. Chromia clutched at her head, wanting to tear out her radio so she didn't have to _hear_ this. It was like the last flicker of energy in a battery, the last drop of fuel in a fuel-cell. The end, the end of everything. And it went on and on-

"Oh, no," Elita said, grief filling her voice. "Oh, no."

"Elita?" Speaking now took more effort than anything else ever had. She couldn't form any other words than her friend's name, and she hoped Elita understood her.

"I want to be wrong," Elita whispered. "I want very badly to be wrong."

There was an explosion more felt than seen, and Chromia's radio melted into a puddle of slag. Silence. Blessed silence. She slumped weakly against the console, her hands shaking, her whole body shaking. Vaguely, she was aware of Elita standing just behind her, hand frozen and outstretched as her friend stared at the viewscreen.

An alert flashed on the console. She stared at it for a few moments before remembering it meant an incoming comm transmission. "Who's calling out there in the deep darks?"

/Hey, we could use a pick-up pretty badly, ladies!/ Bumblebee's cheerful voice came in. /But if you want to leave Cliffjumper out here, I totally understand./

Chromia laughed. "Roger that, 'Bee. We'll bring the _Aurora_ around-"

"Who's we?" Elita asked.

There was a very long pause from Bumblebee, before he laughed nervously. /Me and Cliffjumper, obviously. Jazz. Spike and Daniel. Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Springer, Kup... and Rodimus Prime./

A low moan rose from Elita's vocoder, and Chromia cut her out of the comm-circuit. "We'll bring the _Aurora_ around, Bumblebee."

/Is she- Is Elita going to be all right?/

She glanced back at her friend and looked into those darkened blue optics. "She'll get by, Bumblebee. She always does."

"The Decepticons have lost their leaders," Elita said bleakly. "We need to press the attack as soon as possible."

"She's already doing better, in fact," Chromia said. "Keep your optics on, we'll be there in five. Chromia out."

**-End-**


End file.
